''Remorse, a Story of the Red Plague'' is a 1917 Australian silent film about a naive country boy who visits the big city and contracts

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, an ...

. The movie is now considered a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...

.Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, p 67

Plot

Jack Rundle (Cyril Mackay) works on a station and falls in love with his father's ward, Nellie Fallon (Mabel Dyson). When he goes to the city on business he falls into bad company, contracts

and returns home to find himself an outcast. Years later he finds his brother Ted has married Nellie. He then kills himself.

Production

The film was shot in Adelaide, using pupils from Mathews' acting school.

Release

There was some doubt over whether the movie would be released. But the South Australian censor passed it because they regarded it as having a moral message, although children under sixteen were not admitted. Public response was very strong. The film was originally banned in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

by the censor but this was overturned on appeal.

Cast

* Cyril Mackay as Jack Rundle *Mabel Dyson as Nellie Fallon *Ida Gresham *Marie D’Alton *C.R. Stanford *Victor Fitzherbert *Claude Burton

References

External links

*
''Remorse, a Story of the Red Plague''
at

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national co ...

Australian black-and-white films Lost Australian drama films 1917 films 1917 drama films Australian silent feature films Films shot in Adelaide 1917 lost films Silent Australian drama films 1910s English-language films {{Australia-silent-film-stub